"Do we have any shrikes?" asked Tom Hall of Loudon County last week. Tom had just consulted his bird identification book after seeing a gray-and-white mockingbird-like bird perched atop a weed stalk.

The bird was in the interior of a huge agricultural field recently cleared of soy beans and replanted in winter wheat on a very large farm near Tellico Lake. A barbed-wire fence ran through the interior of the field near the weed stalk perch site chosen by the bird.

Tom's bird was no mockingbird. A distinctive black face mask ran across both eyes. Tom described black "racing stripes" along both wings. The bird was definitely a shrike.

This shrike was surrounded by all the basic necessities required to spend the winter and possibly nest next spring. Shrike habitat includes large agricultural fields, big farms, idle hay fields and pastures, short grass, long barbed-wire fences, utility lines, fence posts and fence rows with isolated trees, shrubs, and weed patches. This describes about everything except a shrike's favorite foods.

These unusual predatory songbirds make a habit of killing and then impaling small animals onto thorns and barbed wire fences. Shrikes then tear their victims apart and eat them piece by piece. This behavior earns shrikes the name butcherbird. Some food impaled on sharp objects is saved and placed in storage to be eaten later.

Like falcons, shrikes kill larger prey including mice, small birds, reptiles and amphibians by biting into the neck and damaging or severing the spinal cord. A paralyzed animal is easier to kill. A specialized hooked bill with horny projections helps with butchering tasks. Unlike falcons and hawks, shrikes lack large strong feet with talons for tearing apart prey. Impaling food on sharp objects allows shrikes to first stash and then eat large prey without using their feet.

Predatory shrikes hunt by sitting and visually searching the ground from exposed perches like weed stalks, fence posts, and utility wires. They sometimes hover in mid-air over fields. Shrikes eat a lot of insects, especially grasshoppers. In winter, with insects scarcer, they eat more mice and small birds.

Loggerhead shrikes migrate south from northern areas where the ground may be covered with snow that hides food for days or weeks at a time. Shrikes are able to live all year in Tennessee.

Tom, who'd never seen a shrike before, thought his shrike looked more like a northern shrike than a loggerhead shrike. However northern shrikes, with heavier, longer, and more conspicuously hooked bills, rarely come this far south even in the coldest winters.

Loggerhead shrikes are the expected shrikes in Tennessee. They both winter and nest here. Look for shrikes perched on wires, fences, fence posts and exposed plants as you drive through rural farmlands.

Unfortunately, you may have trouble finding one. This once fairly common species has declined by 71 percent across its range in only 40 years. Factors include loss of farmland to development, regrowth of farmland as forest due to abandonment, clean fence rows lacking scattered trees and shrubs, pesticides that contaminate prey species eaten as food, and vehicular strikes of low-flying shrikes hunting from roadside perches.

The name loggerhead refers to the bird's large block-like head. A logger is a big block of wood. A shrike's head is extra large in proportion to body size.